After a 2022 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix in which the Maranello team was completely outclassed by its closest rival, the Italians acknowledged that they expected it to be due to the characteristics of Spa-Francorchmps and were confident of getting back into the fight.
Once Friday’s day at Zandvoort , the track that hosts the Dutch Grand Prix, was completed, the red team finished with more positive than negative feelings thanks to the double achieved in the second and last free practice sessions.
With Charles Leclerc at the top and Carlos Sainz Jr. just 0.004 seconds behind his teammate, Ferrari prefers not to be confident, especially due to the situation of Max Verstappen, who finished with an eighth place as the best result after missing out. FP1 due to a breakdown in the gearbox of his car.
As soon as he got off his F1-75, the driver from Madrid was delighted to leave Spa behind and return to a track like the Dutch one, which demands the maximum from both the drivers and the cars.
“Overall it was a good Friday today at Zandvoort. Coming back to such a demanding circuit for the drivers and also the cars was fantastic and I really enjoyed it.”
Speaking more specifically about his expectations after Friday’s day, Carlos Sainz explained that despite the fact that everything had gone as planned, he believes that both the fight for pole position on Saturday and victory on Sunday will be very even with Red Bull.
“In terms of performance, it has been a clean Friday and we have completed the work plan without any problem, both the long runs and the short runs.”
“It seems that it will be close with our closest rivals, so all the speed we find tonight will be of great help to us in terms of qualifying”, concluded the driver from Madrid, who is fifth in the drivers’ classification with more than 100 leadership points.
